


Catharsis and Completion

by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly



Series: Reckoning [8]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebellion Era - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2016-11-30
Packaged: 2018-09-03 09:45:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8707498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: Rex has the ball in motion, but are his other family members willing to play nicely?





	

Ahsoka was tired, again, but it was in the best ways possible. Emotional catharsis and reconnection and knowing that a childhood mentor not only lived but was thriving with a new student. She would make another trip there soon, to share more knowledge and techniques, as the Togruta Master had learned more in her exile as well.

For now, she landed her ship beside the scout vessel… had Reckoning named her yet?... and made to go to the house. Only, she stopped, as not just her husband, but another Jedi presence stepped out of the ship as soon as she got clear of her cockpit, before she had even asked Arseven if he wanted to come to the house or stay with the ships.

Her eyes took in the old face, the white hair and beard, the tired blue eyes full of pain and memory… and she began to bristle, seeing scarred, burned flesh and feeling all the pain that had been inflicted on her partner.

She felt so bright in the Force, a blaze of resilience and energy and strength... tired, but so strong. Obi-Wan watched her -- she looked wonderful, tall and strong and grown into herself -- as she started to tense, her temper even more formidable now than it had been as a child, and he breathed out a quiet sigh. "Hello, Ahsoka." 

"Obi-Wan," she said tersely, eyes cutting to her husband, one eye-mark rising.

"You maybe ought to give him a chance to say his side of things, _riduur_ ," Rex answered that, purposefully using clan-position, instead of rank, to shade this toward a more personal point. Ahsoka took it in, breathing slowly to bring her temper in check… and she faded into the neutrality of a Force user in control of herself on Obi-Wan's senses. 

"Listening is something I try to do. Rex, please finish settling my ship down and check on what Arseven wants to do. I don't think it is necessary to leave him with the ships if he prefers to go home," she said, eyes going back to Obi-Wan. "We'll talk aboard the scout." She walked that way, intent and graceful, shedding the fatigue into the Force.

Obi-Wan matched her in the return up onto the ship, seeing where she would choose to go, to settle, before finding a place of his own where he could face her, letting go of some of his walls instead of holding them so tight. "When did Rex get so perceptive, Ahsoka?" 

That softened her gaze some, and Obi-Wan could tell that the woman was as firmly in love with Rex as he was with her. "He always was, Obi-Wan. It's probably the only reason I had sanity intact when he saved me. Because he always knew just how to help me avoid the breakdowns that were always right on the edge of living as a child-soldier." She had taken her spot on the lounge, though she did not curl her feet under her like normal. Instead, she sat straight and precise, eyes seeing all the changes in him. Once, it might have hurt, but she bore psychic scars from how deeply she had immersed herself in rebuilding Reckoning's shattered body.

"Tell me about Mustafar, from your perspective," she said, getting right to the point. "And then I'll weigh both sides, choose how to tackle the rest."

He nodded at that, at everything Ahsoka said of her husband, then sighed, softly, and began with the only important thing. "When one killing blow had failed, Ahsoka, and Sidious was near landing on the planet -- I could delay long enough to attempt another... or I could run, and save his child.. and his lady. I still hoped for that, then." 

Ahsoka paused in her thinking, then settled a little more comfortably, less forbidding in her demeanor. "Then tell me about Padmé, and why she did not survive. That… the idea you moved to save her, may help. Though he swears he saw/felt you watch him burn, and it is strong in his mind. That might, possibly, be a falsehood that I could not erase when I fixed what I found in his mind, given how strongly traumatic that event was."

"I did _not_! ...not past realizing what had happened, and what I felt coming. As to Padmé... I wish I _could_ explain why she did not survive, Ashoka, but I can't. I -- I took her to Polis Massa, as swiftly as I could. She was," he paused, frowning, "groggy, almost, the entire trip. The oxygen in her blood was fine, her pulse was steady, but her thoughts were... scattered. I thought perhaps the Choke he'd held on her had caused a rupture in her brain, but the medical droids there said 'no', there was no neural damage..."

"No?" Ahsoka put that with Reckoning's memories of Vader being told she had died by his actions. A very cold, hard possibility presented itself to the warrior that had learned her healing arts from witches, not Jedi. She took a deep breath to maintain her calm. "Reckoning is going to wish he had killed the _di'kut_ slower."

"No," Obi-Wan had started to answer, but then she kept talking, her body tensing into hard, dangerous lines all over again, and he asked, after she had spoken, slow and implacable, "Ahsoka? What is it? Why?" 

"The Jedi use the energy of the person to heal. The Dathomiri will use their own energies to heal. The Sith? They steal the energy from others." Ahsoka closed her eyes, already feeling pain for Reckoning. "What I healed of him tells me he really shouldn't have survived all those years, and yet… I think I now know how Sidious did it."

Obi-Wan made a revolted face, his hands tightening into infuriated fists, his head shaking. "I could not understand how he had survived in the first place, but that... that is beyond abominable. The droid said there was no reason for her to be dying, I had been able to do nothing for her. She was trying to fight, she named her children, she wanted them -- but she just... fell away. 

"She died trying to tell me there was good in him still..." 

The younger woman nodded. "She was right. But then again, she often was." She then looked at Obi-Wan intently. "I will talk to him, and see if he is willing to speak with you himself. Knowing you did not willfully leave him to be tortured, I do not wish him to harm you, Obi-Wan. We shall see how this goes, yes?"

She personally thought it would do Reckoning good to hear the truth, painful as it was, but… there was going to be a difficult adjustment for the man to make.

Obi-Wan nodded slowly, watching her face, the set of her body and her lekku, and breathed out. In a sense, he supposed, he had left Vader to be tortured -- he had not made that second attempt, he had thrown it to the Force and run -- but that had never been his goal or reason. "All right, Ahsoka. ...what did you mean, what you had found in his mind?" 

That provoked a bitter laugh. "I could dropkick Mace Windu, if I ever see him again in any form," she growled. "When Skyguy went and told the man that Sidious was the Chancellor, he didn't even stop and think about the fact that the Chancellor had kept access to Anakin for years. Just left him cooling his heels in the Temple, where all the little insecurities could build. Even without knowing about Skyguy's visions over the Senator, that was dumb.

"But, to the point… as I was healing the damage to the body, the mind kept attacking me. It was… almost a complete other person, not quite Vader, definitely not Skyguy or who Reckoning became after that. Just this nasty, vicious expression of hate and anger. I started digging… and realized it was a manifestation of years worth of compulsions and lies that had been placed to create Vader."

She shook her head, still struggling with her own part in that crafting, by being something else forced on Skyguy, and then by leaving him in order to save herself.

He went very still, as she told him _yet another_ way he had failed the brother he had never been able not to love, had never been able to let go of. Oh, yes, there were excuses -- his youth, his grief, his relief at Anakin making a friend when that was so difficult for him-- but Anakin's safety had been _his_ responsibility... and the Sith had warped and twisted his mind, not just with words but the Force, until -- 

He had thought he had forgotten how to cry, living so long on Tatooine, but that... 

Ahsoka moved swiftly, sliding onto the bench he was using, drawing him into her arms without accepting his attempt to evade or deny her. She held him, let him weep, while crooning softly at him. She held his head gently on her shoulder, petting along his back, much as she had soothed so many brothers after the chip. Her presence emanated warmth and love, as she let go her lingering issues over Kenobi's actions and survival. Of course it had all but shattered the man; she had known the love ran deep between the two men she had known as teachers and protectors.

"Let it go, Obi-Wan. Palpatine fooled everyone, and was so careful in his machinations. Many of the older ones were rigged to keep you and Anakin at odds, something that you two still worked around to be so good."

Obi-Wan let himself wrap around her, let the long-unfamiliar press of a body to his rip at what was left of his walls, of his ability to hold back his grief and loss and guilt, and he lost track of the time, lost track of everything except how much those Sith-gold, mad eyes, the words, having to fight him... everything he had done, knowing _this_ now, **hurt**. 

He should be embarrassed, he thought distantly, crying on someone barely more than a third of his age, when it finally all stopped and all there was was their breathing and pulses, but somehow he couldn't manage the energy. 

Once he was calmer, having gone through all that emotion, she shifted to keep him tucked in against her side, but to where he didn't need to feel trapped by her hold on him. 

"If Reckoning agrees to your staying, you need to be used to the fact we touch. All of us. It's … part of keeping sanity, to make sure there is contact," Ahsoka told him softly. "No shame in seeking it, either. My hugging habits never got any better, just more limited in targets. And talking. That's a rule. If something is eating at you, you talk it out. Okay? No one does anything by themselves."

"...I'm rather thoroughly out of the practice of that," Obi-Wan admitted quietly. "Well, other than to the bantha herd, but they don't do much speaking back, for some reason..." 

She laughed softly, and it still had the ability to wrap around a person, despite all she had walked through. "Reckoning isn't always the most talkative, and Rex… it depends on the day. But we need it." She squeezed him gently and slowly eased away to activate her comm. "Rex?"

" _Elek_?"

"Can you go ask Reckoning to meet me here, and then stay with Luke? I think that's the best way to handle it." She knew he was worried, given the immediate Mando'a response instead of her name or title.

"Will do." Rex finished wiping down Arseven quickly, having gotten a firm 'I stay with the ship'. He then jumped down from the ship and started jogging toward home.

+++

Rex hadn't said why, but Reckoning had a foreboding feeling as he arrived at the ship bay, and Ahsoka crossed to meet him well outside it. She didn't try to hug him, but did reach out for his hand, eyes going to the mask.

"Rex went and meddled," she said bluntly. "But… it might be a good thing. Because now we have better answers about what happened to _her_ , if you're willing to hear them."

It would not have taken a genius to figure out exactly what Ahsoka meant by that, and his jaw set hard under the mask. His temper was flaring at the idea that Rex had deliberately gone back after Kenobi, when he had determined to leave the man alone. The idea of knowing what had happened to her, from more than Sidious' words... that was somewhat tempting. But that he lived yet, when Ahsoka had been so angry... "Given some of your previous statements, I admit to finding his survival so far.. somewhat startling." 

Ahsoka nodded. "Not surprised by that, my friend. I didn't think it would go so well, even with Rex interceding for him." Now she did slip in against the front of his armor, having broken the news, so that she could offer the support and calm that she tried to keep for them all. "There is a chance I missed a false memory, Reckoning. And his story rings as true in the Force to me as yours did. So… listen, make your choices, and then we move forward."

He wrapped an arm low around her waist, holding her against his body tightly enough that he could feel her through the protective armor, as he considered her words carefully. "What memory?" he asked, rather than assent or deny what he was going to do. Not that there were all that many choices, Ahsoka had been thorough, but... 

She sighed softly. "You said you remembered him watching you burn, and he swears, other than a look and realizing he had failed, he did not. I think it may be a case of your agony stretching the moment out, possibly reinforced by that piece of filth," Ahsoka said softly, tightening her arms on him so he could feel it. "He left because Palpatine was nearly there. He left to get the Senator, and your child, to safety."

Reckoning growled, low in his throat, his arm tightening a little more on her, as he considered that. He knew, _knew_ , that Kenobi had been there... but Ahsoka was even better at catching a lie than he had ever been. 

He had never wondered how Padmé's body had been returned to her parents, had never considered it, not after being told she was dead. The obvious answer had been -- until Luke -- that the Emperor had brought her back alongside him. Now... with all of the old damage removed, it was obvious that Kenobi had spirited her away. 

"I suppose he did succeed at the second, in a manner of speaking..." The words came out almost as grudgingly as he felt about it. 

"I know it's going to hurt to pry at those memories, to even try and talk to Kenobi." She pressed her cheek along the mask's. "If you don't want to, I'll take him to Bail to sort out his life. But I can tell you this much before you make that choice. He loves Padmé's son. It's very evident in him, and that is why I want you to choose to talk, even while I support you for whichever choice you make."

Reckoning made a dark, sharp noise of dissent and frustration, his fingers flicking his disagreement. Luke had had no idea who they were discussing, the once he had mentioned Kenobi's name, other than as an 'old hermit' in the desert. How could Kenobi claim -- no, Ahsoka said 'evident' in him, which had nothing to do with words. He did not want to talk to Kenobi, he wanted to rend him to small shreds... but for knowledge of what had truly happened to the woman Skywalker and Vader had both loved, that he still loved, he would have a conversation with the man. 

After that... well. They would see. 

"If your temper is going to get the better of you," Ahsoka said, possibly feeling that last, "Take it off planet. Luke doesn't need to feel a Jedi death nearby, not this young if we can help it." The boy was almost a year older than she had been when she went to Christophsis… and yet she would give anything to help his childhood be extended, to keep his innocence. Ezra had already been too much the survivor, but Luke had been sheltered.

She pulled free of him reluctantly, and let him decide his path, a quiet caress of support against his mind.

"I would not do that to Luke," he growled at her, but his hand slid up to pet gently over one montral, a careful touch, at her care for his child, Padmé's child. He was such a vibrant young man, free-spirited and able to dream in ways he had not been in... a very, very long time. "I will see you soon." 

She went to her fighter, not willing to leave the area, but willing to immerse herself in caring for Arseven and the ship instead. She would be here, ready to support Reckoning.

/Force, be kind to them,/ she prayed softly.

Reckoning walked up onto the ship and headed for the most logical point for Kenobi to be, rather than reaching out to find him -- that would end badly, for all concerned. He turned the last corner to the lounge... and froze, shocked. 

He looked ancient. Older than Master Qui-Gon, older than Dooku. The red was gone from his hair, a deeper tan was cut through by such deep lines that they reminded him of old men in Mos Espa, and it was only those blue, blue eyes that convinced him the man in front of him was actually Obi-Wan Kenobi. 

Obi-Wan took in the lighter armor than what he had seen of Darth Vader. It was very influenced by clone armor, with a more Mandalorian influence, yet the individual flare of it was distinctly unlike what the Stormtroopers now wore. The lack of heavy blacks or whites in it helped with that immensely, and the mask was more personally sculpted than any of the influences he could see. 

"Hello. Rex and Ahsoka said your name is Reckoning?" Obi-Wan questioned, even as he had risen during the appraisal. 

"It is," he managed, the Coruscanti accent another small confirmation that this was, in fact, the man that had taught Skywalker. "Ahsoka suggested it, and... it seemed suitable. You look worse than Rex does." 

"As Rex himself pointed out. I will admit the point; those blasted binary suns drained the life from me, I believe." Obi-Wan knew it was more. He knew it was the psychic trauma of losing the Order in one fell swoop, of fighting his beloved brother, of losing his men… all of it had added up, and the age had crept in, more and more, as the years went by. 

This being… none of the truly unreasoning, murderous anger clung to him, though there was a rage. Obi-Wan could feel it just under the surface, possibly because he was the cause of it. 

" _You're_ the one that decided to live under them," Reckoning replied, and went ahead and asked, "why?" 

"To protect Anakin's son," Obi-Wan said bluntly. "It was the one place that was unlikely to come to the Empire's attention, and be actively ignored by Darth Vader, where the boy could grow up safely. That I gave him over to the keeping of the step-brother… may have been a mistake." He still regretted not having been a more constant presence in Luke's life, outside a few small encounters, and none of those since the incident with Jabba's water taxers.

Reckoning considered that for several moments, and finally flicked his fingers in mild agreement. "I must agree that Tatooine was unlikely to garner much Imperial attention," he said, "and... yes. Vader would have had even less interest in returning to Tatooine than Skywalker did. I was... equally displeased, when my returned Sight pushed me towards it. 

"Owen seemed to be a good man, when Skywalker met him, and he kept Luke safe. ...if ignorant of his history. Though training would have been dangerous in its own way," he did have to admit.

"Owen made that clear. Beru was uncertain but did not want to cause strife. Luke, apparently, was always testing Owen's patience." Obi-Wan had to smile sadly for that. 

Reckoning blinked, puzzled. "How? He's impatient sometimes, certainly, but... he learns so quickly, and _wants_ to..." 

Obi-Wan tipped his chin up, eyebrows raised. "Wants to explore, expand his horizons, learn more than a moisture farmer would ever need to know," he continued on from Reckoning's words. "He's a dreamer, with an impressive amount of ability, from all I ever observed."

Reckoning snorted in dark disapproval of small-mindedness, frowning somewhat, then flicked his fingers to dismiss it entirely. "So he is, yes," he agreed with the words about Luke, ignoring the rest now. Luke had not complained of his aunt and uncle, so there was nothing to be terribly concerned about. They would encourage Luke to learn as much as he could, and it would be fine. 

Ahsoka was right, at least, about how Obi-Wan felt about Luke. He loved him, despite having been kept from him, and that... did influence how _he_ felt about Obi-Wan's survival. Favorably, even. "...Ahsoka said she believes that you did not stay..." 

"Force no!" Obi-Wan still was horrified at the idea it had been believed of him. "How could I have gotten Padmé away with Sidious nearly on the planet by the time I got back to her?!" He fell back into the chair he'd been in, covering his face with his hands. "I had to save what I could, since I had failed Anakin so deeply."

The horror was honest, and real, and it resonated in the Force, all truth, as true as the way he sank into the chair, and the feel of it... Reckoning took a shaking breath, grateful that he could breathe without the strict regulation, and let that sink into him. He truly hadn't... the memory was another lie from Sidious, and he stumbled, caught himself on the bulkhead, and took a step, two, towards Obi-Wan. 

"Thank you," he said, hearing Skywalker's ghost-voice saying it in the back of his mind, "for trying. For saving Luke." 

Now was as good a time as any other… "There is another," Obi-Wan said softly, pulling is hands down and looking at Reckoning wearily. "It was decided, because of the blaze that their Force signature was, to separate them, place them in different sectors completely with dedicated protectors."

"...another?" Reckoning asked, startled out of some of Skywalker's thoughts, blinking at the concept. "A... twin? Luke has a twin, and you -- " 

He made himself stop, listen to what Obi-Wan had said about their Force presence when together. "They obviously dimmed when separated. What would you have done if they _hadn't_?" 

"I knew that Leia's new guardian had access to a Jedi. I presumed that she would be shielded in that manner," Obi-Wan said softly. "As Master Yoda was guiding the plan, and his visions had actually cleared somewhat, I had to trust in that, and take Luke with me." Obi-Wan looked up at Reckoning with so much lifelong fatigue written into his eyes. "I didn't dare reach back out once I had the boy safe on Tatooine, which is why I had no idea Ahsoka survived. Or what had been done to the men. Or anything of import, really."

Reckoning made a disgusted noise at the mention of Yoda, old, bitterly furious anger flaring again, his fingers tapping against the armor over his thigh. "...no, you could not, could you? Communications off Tatooine being... what they are. 

"Did he tell you Skywalker had begged for help for her?" 

"No. We did not actually have much time for discussion, as our ally needed to handle his side of things, and we both needed to vanish before he did," Obi-Wan told Reckoning. "He imparted to me a small, surprising secret, and I have spent years studying a new path in the Force because of it, but that is all.

"To this day, I have no idea what I should have done to save her, when the med droid was incapable of finding a reason for her death," he added.

Reckoning growled under his breath, studying Kenobi. He was being very careful about that ally... he supposed he could not much blame him. The words about the droid made him go very still again, his mouth tightening. Ahsoka had not told him that, she'd wanted him to hear it from Kenobi, and the way that he said it... 

"No reason?" he asked, and was aware that Skywalker and Vader's ghosts were both aware at once, completely focused on the answer. 

"The med-droid said she was perfectly healthy. The babies were born perfectly healthy." Obi-Wan looked away, shutting his eyes in anguish. "She named them, told me there was still good in… in Anakin, and then faded away." 

"... _he_ told Vader that he had killed her, in his anger," Reckoning bit out, past the scream in Skywalker's throat, the roar in Vader's, and watched Kenobi narrowly. 

She -- his Angel had named them? The names they bore, Luke and Leia, were the names she had given them? 

That was the way things should be, but he had not dared hope... 

"No. As horrified as I was at the concept of her being attacked, the damage was minor, and she was lucid for the births," Obi-Wan told him. "I wanted to save her… I just did not know how."

Vader hadn't killed her. He hadn't... but then, why -- 

The answer hit Reckoning, suddenly, and he wrapped himself in layer after layer of shields, fast as he could, before his rage could rip through the Force and hit Luke, could take Ahsoka off-guard (she knew, she would be waiting for it, but that wasn't the point) or even hit Obi-Wan. He sank into it, within the shields, let himself know it, know yet another lie, another chain now-broken, and slowly pulled himself back up towards calmness. 

It was a slow process. Finally, eventually, he said, "You would have had to be able to break the connection he must have made to drain away her life... so that he could ensure Vader survived." 

They hadn't killed Sidious nearly slowly enough. 

Obi-Wan sat still through the process, frankly impressed with how fast Reckoning had hidden away his rage, how controlled he was through it. This was not Vader… and it certainly wasn't Anakin, as that kind of control had mostly eluded his padawan.

Maybe Rex and Ahsoka were correct.

Then Reckoning spoke, and Obi-Wan drew in a deep breath. "That was Ahsoka's theory. Apparently she's familiar with several kinds of healing."

"So I am _well_ aware," Reckoning replied, mildly and affectionately amused at Ahsoka and the myriad things she had learned with no-one to tell her what she should or shouldn't. "Without it, I would... well, be dead, most likely. Or still Vader.

"I observed him siphon energy for himself, from others," he admitted, "but it was not a skill I could utilize." 

Obi-Wan looked up at him, and then slowly gave a smile, closed and tight, but a smile nonetheless. "I'm rather relieved to meet you, and to know Ahsoka is partially responsible for it is also pleasing." He meant it; he'd been certain if he met Vader again that it would end in his death, with little purpose.

"Mostly," Reckoning admitted. "Vader would not have decided this, but once she had begun it... I found I wished it. I am very surprised to have encountered you without a great deal of violence, but it is... good, I think." 

"I think it can be," Obi-Wan said, deciding that he would shove his emotions of a cliff, and just handle getting to know this man, if he was going to be allowed to stay. "Is Luke adapting well?" he asked, no longer able to keep his worry for the boy out of the conversation.

"He seems to be," Reckoning replied, allowing the conversation to refocus away from them and onto the boy Obi-Wan had saved. "But then, I think as long as there were ships to investigate, he could adapt to anywhere from Kamino to Hoth to Kashyyyk, and he's fascinated by the Force. 

"If anything is puzzling him, it's the Noghri, but he's happily befriending them, too. To _their_ confusion." 

"Noghri?" Obi-Wan asked, inviting Reckoning to tell him more. It was a relief to know Luke was thriving despite being uprooted from everything he had known.

Reckoning chuckled, the low rasp of it rather like a Noghri sound itself, and came to actually sit down, watching Obi-Wan as he did. That habit, it seemed, would take a while to lose. "One of the many species the Republic failed -- and one of the only ones the Empire even partially aided. Their entire planet was starving from Separatist poisons when Vader arrived on it. 

"They took badly to being invaded, and most of a battalion of stormtroopers died -- at the hands of a pre-industrial people, mind -- before Vader stopped things and provided them food and scientific help. Help promptly sabotaged by the Emperor," he growled, low in his throat, "but. Vader had kept them from starving, saved their young. They consider him, and now me, their savior, and there is nothing they would not do for me, or my child." 

"I see." That was an odd thought to consider, the idea of any permutation of his own padawan being a savior to an entire people and inspiring that much loyalty. "And Luke tends to be an open sort, who would rather make a friend, than an enemy. At least from all I could ever observe when he was sent into Anchorhead." Yes, Obi-Wan had frequently stalked the boy, to make certain no harm came to him.

"They are a good people," Reckoning said, "intelligent, adaptable, determined. Very clan-minded, which has -- slowly -- meant that they are bonding with Ahsoka. They're not entirely certain of her impertinence, but as it entertains me, they accept it. 

"As to Luke... yes. He is... in some ways, very much like another boy of Tatooine was, at first."

Obi-Wan could not help a sad smile at that reminder, remembering a ship, this boy with bright eyes and presence greeting him so openly. "Ahsoka," he said instead of address that last, "and impertinent? Who knew." He drew his arms together, so that his hands folded together inside the robe sleeves, where he could fidget with his fingers now that the immediate tension had died out. "I would like, if you allow, to get to know Luke, perhaps assist with his training?" he requested.

"Anyone who ever met her," Reckoning replied, wry, and studied Obi-Wan thoughtfully for several long moments. 

Bare hours ago, that idea would have been unthinkable, and it still set off wary anger in him... but he thought about Rex, and Ahsoka, and that Luke would likely need the lessons Kenobi could provide, and sighed. "You do, most likely, know things Ahsoka and I do not. She will have opinions, on what he is and isn't taught -- her version of the Code is interesting -- but that said, yes.

"If he accepts you, at least." 

"I am grateful for the chance," Obi-Wan said softly. "And… somehow, I am not surprised at Ahsoka having her own interpretation. She often had interesting insights."

What had their lives come to, that this meeting was even possible? Well, Obi-Wan would just make the best of it he could, and adapt. He'd been doing it all his life; what was one more change?

+++

For all that Obi-Wan had dodged naming who had the girl child, Ahsoka knew the instant Reckoning told her the girl's name, jerking up from her lounging on the floor. They were mostly alone, currently, as Rex had taken Obi-Wan and Luke to get supplies, trailed by two of the four Noghri currently living with them.

Ahsoka stared at Reckoning, then sighed deeply. "Well this just got really interesting, because I happen to think, for all his idealism, the man and his wife are damned good parents, and the last I knew, the girl was on track to follow in Padmé's footsteps, even if she doesn't know it."

Reckoning made a curious noise, focusing intently on her as she was suddenly on her feet. "Oh? You are so certain, just from the girl's name?" 

He had been fairly sure that Obi-Wan (it was strange to think his personal name again, without hate and rage filling it) would not have left her with anyone he did not trust, but that Ahsoka thought well of them was... soothing. Even as it made his half-formed wish to find this daughter of Padmé's more complicated. 

"Knowing he says it's the girl's name, it wasn't too hard for me to figure out I saw her as a very small child, and some of my operatives have actually assisted her in the past," Ahsoka told him. "The reason I saw her? She sneaked into her father's study to listen in while I was hashing out Rebel objectives, before it got far too dangerous for me to be near the Core."

"...that sounds rather like Padmé, yes," Reckoning agreed quietly, before blinking once. "So Obi-Wan hid her with a leader of the Rebellion. I suppose those would have been the only people willing to help him, then. Who, Ahsoka?"

"The Organas." Ahsoka watched him carefully. "She is very loved, and has the finest teachers she could as for in being both a politician and a Rebel."

Reckoning considered that, his fingers running along the armor of his thigh. Padmé had liked and trusted Organa, thought of him as a good friend and a little bit a teacher, and Obi-Wan had been as close to him as it was permitted for them to be..."Well. That's difficult, indeed." 

"I'll consider how to go about this part of it, Reckoning, if you'll leave it to me. A vod should have their vod, no matter what," she said firmly. "Surely Bail will agree with that."

Reckoning flicked his fingers in assent. It would be wisest to allow Ahsoka to work on the problem. She knew Organa well, and he had never struck Skywalker, or Vader, as an unreasonable man. Idealist idiot, perhaps, but not irrational... and not cruel, either. "I will leave it to you for the present," he agreed aloud. 

"Alright." Ahsoka moved to where she could actually be in his space, offering the simple comfort of closeness, if he wished it, in the face of these revelations.

He gathered her in with a wrap of his arms and a light pressure of the Force, and quieted. 

+++

"You need to stop looking for it to all go sideways, Kenobi," Rex said, leaning against the wall as the twins both took lightsaber lessons from Ahsoka. "It's been over a galactic year since you came. Sure, there's been some rough spots, especially when Leia pieced everything about Reckoning together, but it's working for us."

Ahsoka had worked out a deal that let Leia take her vacations from school and service with them, getting to know her brother… and their father. Obi-Wan and Reckoning shared the teaching of Luke, but Leia? Leia was all Ahsoka's student in her Force learning. 

Obi-Wan watched the twins a bit longer, then glanced toward Reckoning when the man called a correction to Luke before finally looking at Rex.

"I once thought things were all going to work out. A few days later, I left my brother to burn to death, or so I believed, to save his lady and child. And failed part of that. It's going to take far more than a year for me to settle from the feeling that something will tear this all apart," Obi-Wan told him.

Rex shrugged, then sighed softly.

"I get it. Doesn't mean I'm going to stop telling you to enjoy what we do have, that is good. Because in the end, if it were to all blow up again? The good is what helps you keep trying. It holds memories as a shield, and lets you forge forward, to do the right thing."

The former Jedi Master tipped his head, then gave a very slow smile. "Wisdom. But, you always were strong in that arena."

"Had to be. Had to keep knocking it into the heads of my generals and commander," Rex said. "Let the happiness win. Waiting for the failure cheapens the good, and insults those two younglings."

Obi-Wan looked back at the twins as they worked in tandem to knock one of the white lightsabers away, earning strong praise from Reckoning.

Rex was right. He drew in a deep breath, put his thoughts of pain away, and committed to the family and happiness ahead of him. It was, as Qui-Gon had once admonished, the moment that he needed to live in.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you one and all for the support.


End file.
